Super 8

Hey ya'll,
Just saw Super 8 and was very happy with what I saw. We had action, creativity, character connection and a gruesome alien seemingly bent on eating, alive, every human he could get his claws into.

JJ Abrams, creator of such fun fare as Lost and one of my favorites, Fringe, wrote and directed this excellent period piece of seventies retro sci-fi.

A group of young teens are filming a zombie film for a contest. Inadvertently they end up on the wrong side of a huge train wreck and find themselves entrenched in a mystery and targets of evil military guys and in search of answers they may not want the answers to.

Super 8 has all the makings of a B Movie with A movies special effects, writing acting and flow.  The kids in the film are believable as much as kids taking on an alien force and an apparently evil faction of the US Armed Forces.

Super 8 is definatelyworth the time and money to to go see.  it is one of those flicks that will do well on video, but it would be a shame to miss see it with an active audience.  There are plenty of gotchas, jump ups and screams for all.

X-Men: First Class

I have over a dozen DVD's on my shelf that are based on comic books from the last 15 years. In a drawer in my room there are several stacks of comic books in the protective sleeves. To say that I enjoy comics, is an understatement. As a film student, I see them as a great source of material with a built in audience. The studios would agree with me on that.



X-Men: First Class is a "Reboot" to the X-Men franchise is set to be the Summer Tentpole movie this year for Fox. And from what I saw, well deserved. The storyline was well orchestrated by Matthew Vaughn (who also directed Kick-Ass, which a sequel is in the works, and Star Dust a novel by Neil Gaiman) and the cast was terrific. This movie takes place before any of the other X-Men live action movies timeline and shows the chemistry between Brothers in Mutation Erik Lehnsherr and Charles Xavier before they became adversaries.

There is plenty of action on all sides of the mutant/human lines complete with a climactic ending. Watch for plenty of familiar faces relating to both characters in the comics and actors playing roles they are good at. Giving little away about the story, I will say that there isn't anything after the credits, much to my dismay. This will mark the first in a long time of any comic related movie, especially a Marvel Movie, that doesn't have a lead in for a next movie. I often related that to the last page of a comic book where they give a blurb about what's in store for the loyal reader in the next issue. Normally I wouldn't advocate leaving the theater before the credits are done, cause one day I will be in those credits, but if you've gotta go, that's acceptable this time.

Get your popcorn ready, strap into your seats, and enjoy the ride. This movie isn't in the D-Box motion seats, but even without it this movie is a wild ride. This midnight screening was at the Cinema West theater in Livermore. For the summer, they will be having midnight screenings for most films coming out. The theater is really nice and is a bit less expensive compared to the other local theaters at $10 for a normal ticket.

The next movie I'll be reviewing will be in D-Box this summer. Super 8 directed by J.J. Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg.

Enjoy the movies this summer, and beat the heat (we're not getting).

Movie Marathon at The Castro Theater with Midnite for Maniacs

When Jesse Ficks programs a Marathon for Midnites for Maniacs, he's not skimping out on the celluloid, for sure! Last night's five movie marathon was by far no exception. Not only was the Castro Theater filled with movie fans, popcorn, and various other consumables, but there was a genuine Director and Actor Q & A after the screening of the 80's classic, Monster Squad with Director Fred Dekker and Actor Ryan Lambert, who played Rudy in the movie. That was only the second of the five movies, and by then the theater was raging with excitement from all the amazing trivia questions the Host, Jesse had prizes for. In his tenth year programming Midnites, He's sure gotten a lot of attention for the best of the overlooked movies of the last thirty plus years.

The Night started off with Heavy Metal, a four part adult animated movie with plenty of Metal Music to sink your teeth into. As mentioned before, Monster Squad was next, followed by a 30 minute Q & A with the director and actor. A short break before continuing was needed to stretch the legs and get some food at the nearby pizza joint, Marcello's Pizzaria. From there, the next movie was an amazingly rare print of This is Spinal Tap, which the 35mm print was flown in from France just for tonight's screening! I must mention that all of these movies were shown on the 35mm prints that Jesse had to search high and low to get. None of these were shown on a DVD player. After Spinal Tap, was the first of two movies that I had never seen before tonight: Trick or Treat with cameos by Gene Simons and Ozzy Osborne (in the role of a reverend no less). Rounding out the evening was a movie starring Alice Cooper in the movie Monster Dog.

Be sure to check out all the links to places I've posted for future screenings and other nearby foods, especially if you come out to the next marathon. In two weeks at another location, Jesse's Midnites for Maniacs will be hosting a series of 35mm trailers at the Roxy Theater for a fundraiser to keep that theater open! Ticket prices are as much as you want to donate and there will be an auction for movie memorabilia. At 9:30 there will be a secret movie played from another 35mm print.

This is Drew, signing off for a nap now. 11 hours of movies is great, but exhausting!

Vive Cinema!

Movie Review - Insidious

The hairs on my arms stood up for the ending of this horrific tale of possession from the creative teams behind the Saw franchise and the Paranormal Activity (soon to be) trilogy. James Wan directed and Oren Peli is sited as producer on Insidious which is a story of a young boy who strangely falls into a coma and his family struggle to find out the cause of this bizarre occurrence. I enjoyed this movie understanding who was making it and who they were making it for.

It follows a similar story to the Paranormal movies but in a more narrative structure, adding in a much more elaborate set of possessor beings. The family is struggling to keep from tearing apart as the mother starts to see things that the husband/father seems to know nothing about. There's much more to that then the father, wonderfully played by Patrick Wilson, is leading on. He's a very strong character in this, although has much less to do with discovering the incidents. Rose Byrne, who plays the resilient mother, takes all things in stride to a point before calling in professional help. The secondary characters were believable too! I think the cast was well rounded for the movie.

The soundtrack was amazing too! It really kept me on the edge of my seat. It was a more traditional horror film with a very suspenseful strings section and often used spaces of no sound quite well.

Don't leave before the credits are over and you'll get a small tidbit. It's not much, but it's enough to re-raise the arm hairs a bit. Overall, I give this movie a three and a half arm hairs up out of five. For more, check out Imdb or ImdbPro.com